Life modeling undraped
Photo by Katherine Rountree.
Written by Amy Stoltenberg
Photos by Katherine Rountree
“People do not want to be acknowledged by the nude model,” said Benjamin Austin, who has worked as a nude, or “undraped,” model here at the Savannah College of Art and Design for almost two years.
Austin describes the balancing act of being able to model while also interacting with students on a normal level to be one of the challenges that makes the job enjoyable.
“You have to be okay with being totally objectified, because the students are just looking at your body for its shapes, but at the same time, I don’t want them to ever forget that I am a real person,” said Austin.
SCAD currently employs 20 part-time models, 17 of which are willing to work undraped. This spring quarter, there are 23 classes, mostly life drawing and painting, that use these models with 10-15 students in each class.
Megan Matteo is the assistant to the dean of the School of Foundation Studies, and the model coordinator for SCAD. When hiring new models, Matteo spends time getting to know the applicant, looking for resume highlights such as dance, yoga, martial arts, prior modeling experience, and, most importantly, a good imagination.
“Modeling requires someone to step outside of themselves to become somebody else. I like to see that they can still reach that point where they can play pretend,” said Matteo.
Physically, Matteo looks for variety in height, weight, shape, race, ability, and everything in between. The important thing is that the students are able to practice drawing or painting a wide array of body types.
“It’s very clinical, like a doctor looking at a patient,” said Maureen Garvin, dean of the School of Foundation Studies. “Most of our students see it that way, because as an artist you are so engrossed in getting musculature or the skeleton right, so they are just concentrating on that.”
For Austin, the experience is less clinical and more about the energies that flow throughout the classroom.
“One thing that I really love about this job is being in the presence of so many artists while they’re doing their thing. That environment is kind of like a sponge,” said Austin, “It’s a situation that feeds on itself in terms of creativity.”
Caitlin McRae, one of SCAD’s veteran models, agrees: “The symbiosis between the student artists and the professors, who are also artists, in the classroom embodies the thrill of being alive, even if being still.”
For McRae, however, there is a certain “psychological partition” that needs to fall down between herself and the artists while she is on duty. This helps to keep the awkwardness at bay and stipulates that no direct communication be exchanged between the two parties.
This communication includes visual, as the model’s contract with SCAD prohibits eye contact with students while the model is undraped. This is to help students approach their task objectively.
“It does help to think of them as just a drawing object, so it isn’t too provocative. I was shocked, and a little uncomfortable the first time we drew from an undraped model in class, because I’d never seen anybody else’s naked body before,” said Morgan Dallas, a first-year student from Atlanta, Georgia. “But I sort of got used to it eventually, and it isn’t really a big deal anymore.”
However, for Austin, communication is something that he feels the classroom is sometimes lacking.
“I feel most comfortable even when I’m up on the stand if they still address me as a person,” said Austin. “The hard part is that the students want to communicate the energy in their drawing, but for you don’t get any feedback. If you model, you might do a pose that’s great for them, and they might be really excited about that, but it’s hard for them to communicate [that].”
Because every model and student has a different comfort level in terms of communication, sometimes the line of appropriateness can get a little blurry. The rule of thumb is to err on the side of caution, giving the model space and respect while they work.
“As long as the model is clothed, it’s fine for students to talk to the model. Both are professionals, so casual conversation on break is acceptable,” said Dean Garvin.
The experience of a non-sexualized undraped modeling session is one that is unique to the art world, an ancient tradition that is, at its core, an ode to the beauty of the human form and used to develop the skills of practicing artists.
In the words of Miranda Viorst, a first-year painting major from Boulder, Colorado: “When drawing from a nude model, the artist transposes the most honest form of humanity onto a page, communicating that raw, genuine humanity in all its luscious imperfections and vulnerability.”
